My coop design and build blog

[Sally PB]

@Rancid Crbtree, where are you located? You can add it to your profile, and then it's always there. Just the state is fine, if you're in the US. Your climate matters a lot for any advice someone might offer.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have a rather heavy egg door that opens the way you show. I ended up adding gas pistons. Still I wish I had done a front door. You could consider a front door. Maybe a sliding door. If the overhang is large enough I think it would be watertight. This type door would also allow easier access to the eggs. Especially if you might have little ones collecting the eggs. I added my 2 cents to the suggestions jar.

Seconding this - I also use a "bottom hinge, front open" design on my nesting boxes to make it easy to get eggs without having to hold something heavy, and to ensure an absolutely weathproof point of contact where nesting box roof meets the wall.

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

Oh the mud!! Have I ever mentioned I dont care for roofing? (there seems to be more gravity around me as I age) But that part is out of the way now. We are having a few very unseasonably warm days. (Thanks El Nino. Its better than -10F)

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

I used the dark green metal roofing for 2 reasons, first, it will match the rest of the buildings on the homestead and in the winter, it will warm the coop. The negative is that it will generate a lot of heat in the summer so I put 2 inch thick foil faced foam board under the roof deck. That and the the vents I created should purge that hot air off pretty well. Then I started working on the nesting boxes.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Great job so far!

 

[jreardon1918]

I used the dark green metal roofing for 2 reasons, first, it will match the rest of the buildings on the homestead and in the winter, it will warm the coop. The negative is that it will generate a lot of heat in the summer so I put 2 inch thick foil faced foam board under the roof deck. That and the the vents I created should purge that hot air off pretty well. Then I started working on the nesting boxes.

I think your build looks great. I found a picture of what I was think for the nest box doors. Where you have overhangs for the roof. I think you could incorporate something like this in you build and make it waterproof. Again, YMMV.

 

[Krugerrand]

We went with a fairly similar design style.

I put my nest box on the side and my clean out door on the front/high side.

As some others have mentioned, my nest box drops down, which helps from a weather proofing standpoint.

I have one roost bar across the coop. One drawback to that is that when introducing new chickens it can be a challenge as the older ones wouldn't let the younger ones up on the roost bar. But, I put a cardboard divider up for a while that fixed that.

Also, you can see from some pictures that under the roof is completely open and fully secured with hardware cloth to maximize ventilation. The window above their heads over the roost bar is open 24x7x365. The other windows have hinged plexiglass that gets closed in the winter and on rainy days.

I went with no insulation. I'm in PA. We get some cold spells but nothing like upper Canada.

 

[LaurelC]

I have a rather heavy egg door that opens the way you show. I ended up adding gas pistons. Still I wish I had done a front door. You could consider a front door. Maybe a sliding door. If the overhang is large enough I think it would be watertight. This type door would also allow easier access to the eggs. Especially if you might have little ones collecting the eggs. I added my 2 cents to the suggestions jar.

I think this is the easiest way to handle a door. Did the same with my (janky looking) chicken trailer. The overhang i used is heavy duty mud flaps from NAPA.

 

[homesteading101]

I think this is the easiest way to handle a door. Did the same with my (janky looking) chicken trailer. The overhang i used is heavy duty mud flaps from NAPA.

If it's functional janky is irrelevant you should see some of my first chicken tractors looks like a tornado nailed boards together with wheels lol

 

[LaurelC]

If it's functional janky is irrelevant you should see some of my first chicken tractors looks like a tornado nailed boards together with wheels lol

Oh, for sure. I'm leaning into the jank and having fun with it looking like a complete hoopty. It's only rolling around our farm, so it can look as ugly as it needs to.